More On Why The U.S.G.A. Is Dropping Qualifiers For Its Four Remaining Scheduled Events

Steve Eubanks considers the complicated call by the USGA to cancel qualifiers for its four remaining Open and Amateur championships. While the jokes are flying in texts and emails about open events becoming invitationals, the poll results from you, the readers, show a strong 63% majority wanting a U.S. Open even if means no qualifyings (and presumably the same view for the U.S. Women’s Open and the two Amateurs).

Eubanks adds this from the USGA’s John Bodenhamer and ultimately, I admire the call to scrap all qualifiers in the name of safety and sheer difficulty of rescheduling, even if it seems like the U.S. Open’s could have at least retained a sectional stage, thereby protecting the integrity of the internationally adored From Anyone campaign.

“There were a number of factors,” Bodenhamer said, “and one of them is that with any (competition) that we conduct, there is a need to test and to implement robust health and safety protocols. The inability to do (uniform testing) at 660 qualifying sites, several hundred of those that would have been rescheduled into a timeframe that was already getting jampacked with other things, presented (insurmountable challenges). Those venues and our allied golf associations have lost revenue; they’re struggling; they’ve canceled events; they need to run events; they need to generate revenue, just as the host venues for those qualifiers need to do their own things.”

Revenue at the USGA was never mentioned but those on the outside believe it played a role. It is widely believed that the USGA has a big financial incentive to conduct the U.S. Open in some fashion this year. Fox television network pays a healthy sum for the delivery of the event. No tournament means no revenue, which likely would put a healthy dent in future operating budgets.